Saturday, 28 July 2012

13 by Kelley Armstrong

War is coming to the Otherworld. A sinister cult known as The Supernatural Liberation Movement is hell-bent on exposing the truth about supernaturals to the rest of the world. Their violent, ruthless plan has put everyone at risk: from werewolves to vampires, from witches to half-demons.

Savannah Levine - fiery and unpredictable - stands at the heart of the maelstrom. There is a new, dark magic inside her, granting her the power to summon spells of terrifying strength. But whether this magic is a gift or a curse, no one knows.

On the eve of battle, all the major players must come together in a last, desperate fight for survival - Elena and Clay; Adam and Savannah; Paige and Lucas; Jeremy and Jaime; Hope, Eve and more ... They are fighting for their lives. They are fighting for their loved ones.

They are fighting for the Otherworld.

13 takes off exactly where Spellbound ended, Waking the Witch, Spellbound and 13 are actually the only books from the Otherworld series that don't have a big time gap in between them. Savannah and Jaime get "arrested" while trying to get away from the lab explosion, they get taken to a police station but don't get booked or anything so conclude that it's a trap. After fighting off a crazed werewolf and and escaped hellhound, they manage to get away from the station with Eve. Eve and Savannah find out that there's an anti-SLM group as well. They plan to infiltrate the SLM to take it down from the inside but the plan fails when the Nast cabal get involved and take Eve and Savannah into custody. After getting away from the Nast cabal, they team up with the rest of the Otherworld crew minus Antonio & Nick (*sad face*) and through some helpful demon Lords in the shape of Eve and Adam's fathers, they manage to find out exactly what's going on and stop it - with a lot of magic and action.

So yeah that was a very small recap because so much happens in this book that I'd end up just writing the whole damn story here. Anyone who reads my reviews or knows me personally knows how much I LOVE Kelley's books - it's impossible to not love her writing. For me - and any long time Otherworld fan - this book was a bittersweet read, as much as I couldn't wait to read it I also didn't want to read it 'cos as soon as I did then the series would be over.

So some of my favourite bits or my gasp out loud moments ........ (will be hidden due to major spoilers so highlight to read) ....... Malcolm - yes, Malcolm! He's alive and he's in Nast custody. Karl gets shot - I thought he was dead, luckily he survives - I didn't like that I thought he was dead for a short period. Elena gets in a fight with Malcolm and gets the better of him, she wants to kill him before Jeremy and Clay know he's actually alive but Clay walks in on them and then he fights him, almost kills him too but the Nast cabal intervene. Jeremy reveals he's going to make Elena alpha immediately - OK not that big a shock since it's the last book but still a tingle went through me (yes, I was that happy). Savannah and Adam finally get together properly but agree not to tell Paige and Lucas. Paige and Lucas find out anyway, Paige is fine with it, she's seen it coming for ages apparently, Lucas is most definitely not, he doesn't want Savannah getting hurt.

So any of my readers know they aren't going to get an unbiased review from me about a Kelley book - there's no such thing when it comes to Kelley. I freaking loved this book - sad to see the series end but Kelley did it justice. We got to see all of our favourite characters again and she tied off some open storylines while still leaving enough open to warrant novellas at a later date - which Kelley has said will happen.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Is a very short story purely there for the Alpha hand-off storyline. While 13 was happening, the twins and the rest of the pack were in Russia with the Russian pack so when Elena, Clay, Jeremy and Jaime join them, Jeremy officially hands the pack over to Elena.

I love the way he did it. Traditionally it would be a challenge so Jeremy challenged Elena to a game of chess. Which was already set up so that Elena would win since it was only a formality, everyone but Elena knew what was happening. Then there's a cool little scene with all the pack playing touch football as Elena watches them - and Jeremy is playing - realising they are her pack. As I said, a tiny short but it was only to serve one purpose. Oh and also let us see Xavier one last time.

1 comment:

I loved this book so much. It was a fitting end to a great series. The KM shocker about killed me! I loved how she let each of the past narrators have a special chapter and voice in the book and that all the half-demons finally met their dads.